# Dropbox announces global foundation to support human rights work

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/02/16/dropbox-announces-global-foundation-support-human-rights-work/
- Published: 2018-02-16T09:55:47+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**Dropbox has launched the Dropbox Foundation: a global charitable foundation to
support organisations that defend human rights.**

[The Dropbox Foundation](https://dropbox.foundation/) will be working with four 
charities as its initial group of partners for 2018, and the first UK charity partner
will be War Child.  As well as [War Child UK](https://www.warchild.org.uk/), the
foundation will be supporting Dublin-based [GOAL,](https://www.goalglobal.org/) 
[Larkin Street Youth Services](http://larkinstreetyouth.org/), based in San Francisco,
and Brooklyn’s [WITNESS](http://witness.org/).

   The support will be in the form of:

 * Flexible, unrestricted grants that recipients can use in the way they feel is
   most useful
 * Dropbox employee volunteers with skills that match the organisation’s needs, 
   such as financial modelling or improving data security

 The Foundation is jointly funded by Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and co-founder Arash
Ferdowsi, and Dropbox, with an initial endowment of approximately $20 million that
is expected to grow over time. It will be overseen by a board that includes Dropbox
executives Dennis Woodside (COO), Bart Volkmer (General Counsel), and Amber Cottle(
VP of Policy), as well as four independent directors from Silicon Valley Community
Foundation.  In a blog post announcing the Foundation’s launch, Drew Houston and
Arash Ferdowsi said:

> “As Dropbox continues to grow, we want to do more — especially for organisations
> that are fighting for equal opportunity, basic freedoms, and fundamental necessities
> for people around the world. “These partners were selected because of their commitment,
> optimism, and creative problem-solving. Between them they have more than a hundred
> years of combined experience defending human rights. We hope to help these partners
> expand their impact and learn from them along the way.”

 * **[Royal Marsden receives largest-ever single donation of £25 million](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/06/07/royal-marsden-receives-largest-ever-single-donation-25m/)**(
   7 June 2018)
 * **[New programme will bring frontline expertise into trusts & foundations](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/07/19/new-programme-will-bring-frontline-expertise-trusts-foundations/)**(
   19 July 2018)
 * **[Charitable trusts to benefit from £1 million dividend payment](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/09/24/charitable-trusts-benefit-1m-dividend-payment/)**(
   24 September 2018)

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